same old question...bf baby won't take the bottle!

[tamnz]

Evening! I feel v guilty about this but am beginning to really not enjoy breastfeeding. My darling wee son breastfeeds like a dream and I know he is only doing what is v natural for him, but the whole BF thing for me is beginning to drive me nuts. My little man is nearly 5 months and for the last few weeks have been trying to get him to take a bottle. He had been fine with the occasional bottle of EBM since the day he was born, but at about 12 weeks he started refusing!!! The little monkey! However, I gather, from the threads on here, this is not so unusual. Basically I have tried a whole load of teats/bottles/cups with warm/cool/warmer EBM and formula to no avail. Hubby, mum and friends have all tried, have tried when he's hungry, not so hungry, for a dream feed...no luck!!! Any advice or tips before i go mad?

Do you really want him to go onto formula totally?

I know how hard it is when they point blank refuse to take a bottle. I tried with my DS when he was 5, 6, 7 ,8 ..... months and he was having none of it and would rather starve than drink formula.

Even when i became ill and hospitalised when he was 8 months - he had nothing the whole time I was gone -over 24hrs!!!

He did eventually take one about a month after that but I kept offering just one a day when he was sleepy etc and wasn't up for a fight?! Then that was it - he dropped me like a stone - quite a crap feeling tho after months of feeding but i was going back to work etc.

I'm in same position. Eight month old used to take bottles no problem. In fact he used to love them. Since he's been five or six months he completely refuses, shuts his mouth tight, turns his head away, or nuzzles into my boobs. Also have dried a cup. The best one I find is the plain and simple Towmee Tippee one, no contraptions inside the spout. But it's not exactly a breeze. He'll drink juice in it, but very little milk. Think I'm just going to inlcude LOTS of formula or EBM milk in his food (cereal etc) and just bf in the morning and night.

It's much easier on both if you reduce gradually like that. They do get there eventually

Thank you for the messages....I would ideally mix feed, so I'll just keep trying!!! Oh its just SO frustrating!

keep ing

I am having the same problem with my 5 month old.Truly terrible!! In the last week I have had success with the special bottles from Mothercare called breast flow. He will take these without that much of a battle. You can buy just one bottle to try. Good luck.

If you can hang on for a few more weeks you could be mix feeding him with solids.

I had to start using formula when Tink stopped growing, started just before she was 4 months for a week she had BF followed by FF every 2 hours (except at night) with 2 full FF feeds. It took until she was 6 months to come off of the FF as the solids replaced the extra milk.

Hi! Hannahm was it these that worked for you? What flow rate did you use? Thanks!!

Caz-Yes these are the bottles. I just bought one with a medium to fast flow. He plays with the teat a bit but it kind of drips into his mouth and then he finally will suck for a bit. It does work but it is a slow process. However, in comparison to any other kind of normal bottle it is good. With normal bottles he just goes mad, coughs, splutters, fights with his fists etc... and in six weeks I'm going back to work (teacher too) so I now feel somewhat relieved.